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Sunday, June 14, 2015

‘Jurassic World’ is exhilarating summer fun

There is a great moment toward the end of the second act in “Jurassic
World” where obsessive corporate operations manager Claire Dearing (played by the wonderful
Bryce Dallas Howard) comes upon animal trainer Owen Grady (played by the red
hot Chris Pratt) who is tending to an injured brontosaurus. For the first time the
uptight corporate cold Claire realizes what Owen has been trying to tell her.
These are not assets. These are live animals; living, breathing creatures with
needs, and instincts, and desires, and yes, feelings. It is a moving scene and
a tremendous character moment. It also illustrates why “Jurassic World” works
so well. This is a great summer popcorn movie that is also a smart summer movie.
It has action—great action. But it also has heart.

One of the movie’s promos said, “Steven wanted to make a
movie about our relationship with animals today.” The Jurassic Park movies have
all, to a certain extent, contained subtext about humans exploiting nature and
animals for profit and greed. These were the major themes in Michael Crichton’s
masterful novel. But “Jurassic World” is the first movie to really deal with
these issues (and have a strong opinion on them) since the original classic
film, and it gives the movie a welcome added layer to what otherwise could just
be an exercise in special effects.

“Jurassic World” takes place some twenty years after the
original park created by John Hammond in the first movie. A team of scientists
and suits have taken his ideas and shrewdly expanded them, creating the mother lode
of all theme parks. The resort in “Jurassic World” is part Epcot, part
Universal Studios, and part African Safari. And it is a triumph in movie
production design down to the last detail. The truth is, this is a place a lot of
people would want to visit and to paraphrase John Hammond’s lawyer from the
original, “they will pay us and they will pay us a lot of money. Whatever we
ask them to…”

In a particularly snarky review session on YouTube’s What the Flick, the increasingly cynical
bunch there bitched and moaned how “Jurassic World” is bogus and could never
exist because there is no way anyone would ever try to build a dinosaur theme
park after the events in 1993.

I mean are you serious? What world are these people (the
film critics at What the Flick)
living in? That is like saying all offshore drilling stopped after the BP
disaster in 2010. In the real world, humans will do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING if
there is profit involved. And when millions (and potentially billions) of
dollars are at stake, someone will try and do it no matter how dangerous or
morally dubious, because humans are stupid and greedy.

Another asinine criticism of “Jurassic World” is that
somehow it is a failure because it is not as good as the original “Jurassic
Park” or “Jaws”. Now if Spielberg himself had returned to the chair, (especially
in the wake of “Mad Max: Fury Road”), I can kind of understand that comparison.
That is one of the reasons so many people were down on “The Lost World”. Outside
of the brilliantly choreographed action sequences, it felt like Spielberg
directing on auto pilot.

But “Jurassic World” was not directed by Steven Spielberg.
It was directed by Colin Trevorrow whose only previous feature film directing credit
is the micro-budget “Safety Not Guaranteed”. And you know what? He does a
helluva good job. The action sequences are choppy as they are for any non-Hong
Kong director not named Spielberg, Cameron, or Miller. But the action is well-staged,
and at times, wickedly suspenseful.

“Jurassic World” has a very Spielberg-esque story about
family at its heart, best represented by the character arc of the Bryce Dallas
Howard character Claire Dearing. But let’s cut to the chase. The real reason
people pay to go to “Jurassic Park” movies is the same reason they pay to go to
the theme park in the movie—to see dinosaurs. And the dinosaurs in “Jurassic
World” are spectacular. They are fierce and majestic and cuddly and sinister
and scary and very real. But the best part is this. Unlike the sequels, the
dinosaurs in “Jurassic World” are treated with respect—both as animals and as
characters. There is a moment toward the end in the finale where a character
from the first movie emerges and it is a pure stand up and cheer movie magic
moment.

It was a wise decision to use John William’s iconic theme
music in this movie. It was an equally smart idea to hire Michael Giacchino to
compose the “Jurassic World” score. He is the John Williams of today and his
music for this film is filled with exciting action cues and he has composed a wonderful
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” styled sweeping main theme.

Bottom line: Ignore the grouchy cynics. “Jurassic World” is
great summer entertainment and a worthwhile sequel to the original 1993 Spielberg
directed classic.

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About Me

James J. Caterino is a freelance writer based in South Florida. The wildly controversial scribe is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and the Action/Cut school of directing. He is the author of "Technicolor Dreams", "Battle of the Network Superheroes", "The B Girl", the "Caitlin Star" series, "Steel Phantom", "The Selfie", "The Last Neanderthal", "She", "Action Figure", "All About Amy", "Video Noir", "Among the Stars", hundreds of essays, movie, television, and music reviews, screenplays, short stories, and much more. Please visit Jamescaterino.com for more